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As the premier Cisco® modular multilayer switch, the Cisco Catalyst® 6500 Series delivers secure, converged services from the LAN access to the core, to the data center, and to the WAN edge.

PRODUCT OVERVIEW

The Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series provides the broadest selection of 10- and 100-Mbps media, densities, interoperability, and chassis deployment options (refer to Table 1). The 100BASE-X, 100BASE-FX, and 10BASE-FL modules provide another alternative for the access and distribution layer and metropolitan (metro) access deployments. The 100BASE-X module offers customers flexibility to mix and match different optics, and maximize their investment protection by allowing pay-as-you-grow through support of modular, Small Form-Factor Pluggable (SFP) optics.

• Port densities-Up to 48 ports per 100BASE-X module are supported, enabling up to 576 100BASE-X ports per 13-slot chassis; up to 24 ports per 10BASE-FL module are supported, enabling up to 288 ports of 10BASE-FL per 13-slot chassis (configured with 12 interface modules).

• Superior traffic management-The modules are available with large 256-MB buffers for 48 ports. Available with 4 transmit queues per port, with 1 strict priority queue for quality of service (QoS). Each port supports Weighted Random Early Detection (WRED) for congestion avoidance within each queue, and Deficit Weighted Round Robin (DWRR) as well as Weighted Round Robin (WRR) for scheduling between queues to aid in traffic prioritization. Up to 8 thresholds can be configured to manage differentiated levels of service.

• Operational consistency-Configurations are available for Cisco Catalyst 6500 3-, 6-, 9-, and 13-slot chassis running Cisco IOS® Software and Cisco Catalyst Operating System Software; they are interoperable with all other interfaces and services modules, and forward-compatible with all Cisco Catalyst 6500 supervisor engines.

High-density fiber-based 10- and 100-Mbps Ethernet modules offer enterprises and military operations the ability to deploy fiber to the desktop to maximize security of their network. The Cisco Catalyst 6500 100BASE-X and 100BASE-FX modules also can be deployed in areas where customers need long-distance (greater than 550m and up to 2 km) connection over existing multimode fiber where Gigabit Ethernet is not an option. Through the support of modular SFPs optics, the 48-port 100BASE-X module offers flexibility by allowing mix and match of different optics types, allowing smaller branches to use 100BASE-FX over multimode fiber to the desktop and 100BASE-LX over single-mode fiber to the main campus building. For all these applications, the Cisco Catalyst 6500 100BASE-X module maximizes customers' investment protection by allowing them to purchase and deploy SFP optics as they grow their network.

Service Providers

For service providers, the 100BASE-X module is targeted for the metro Ethernet access layer as well as cable distribution hubs (DHUBs) or headends for cable companies. The Cisco Catalyst 6500 100BASE-X module offers superior traffic management with support of 4 transmit queues per port with 1 strict priority queue for QoS. Each port supports Weighted Random Early Detection (WRED) for congestion avoidance within each queue, and DWRR for scheduling between queues to aid in traffic prioritization. Up to 8 thresholds can be configured to manage differentiated levels of service. The 100BASE-X module is also hardware-capable to support per-port VLAN ID translation (8 subports share a
translation table with 64 entries) and the ability to map the inner class of service (CoS) to the outer CoS (CoS mutation) for 802.1Q-in-802.1Q (QinQ) deployments.

Designed for deployment in LAN access where optical interfaces are required and for metro Ethernet access, the Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series Classic 10- and 100-Mbps Ethernet fiber-based interface modules provide 10- or 100-Mbps Ethernet forwarding with the following operational advantages and characteristics (refer to Table 2):

Designed for small campus distribution and core layers and for data-center and Web-hosting applications, Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series CEF256 100BASE-FX Ethernet fiber-optic interface modules provide line-rate forwarding with the following operational advantages and
characteristics:

• Forwarding architecture-Use the central CEF engine located on the supervisor engine

• Forwarding performance-Forward packets up to 30 Mpps per system and up to 15 Mpps per slot for slots upgraded to support distributed forwarding

• Fabric connection-Connect to the switch fabric using one 8-Gbps connection and the 32-Gbps shared bus

Whether your company is a large organization, a commercial business, or a service provider, Cisco Systems
® is committed to maximizing the
return on your network investment. Cisco offers a portfolio of technical support services to help ensure that your Cisco products operate efficiently, remain highly available, and benefit from the most up-to-date system software.